Ancliff Square

1770’s – Weavers Cottages
Built as a group of weavers’ cottages in the late 1770’s the building known at the turn of the millennium as Ancliff Square was in turn… the Bradford Union Work House from 1836 to 1914… a convalescent home for wounded soldiers during the 1914-18 war…a residential Hotel, known as ‘The Old Court’ between 1922 and 1948…a conversion to 14 self contained flats from 1952 to 1987 when it was developed into 12 separate houses. Changing it’s title to Ancliff Square. Few records remain of its origins as a Weavers Residence: it was reputed to have been built around 1795 by clothier, William Moggeridge, owner of the dunkirk Woolen Mill at Freshford, to house 14 families of hand-loom weavers. With the introduction of machinery into the Weaving Industry, hand-looms became redundant and in 1836, the building was brought and converted into the Bradford Union Work House. A chapel extension was added which also contained the dinning halls and kitchens.

1851 – Work House
The 1851 census recorded that on 30 March there were 249 occupants of the Bradford Work House – 13 officers and 236 paupers’: Twelve of the later were identified as weavers or clothworkers including one Ezekiel Troyford, aged 81, probably one of the many of the buildings previous inhabitants unable to adjust to the ‘Machine Age’. Another clothmaker, Theresa Love, aged 19, may have been responsible for the family discernible inscription LOVE inside the beehive-shaped stone building used as a drying house for the woolen cloth. In Workhouse days, it was used as a lock-up and mortuary. The building ceased to bea workhouse in 1914 and was used briefly as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers. One of the former patients recalled that patriotic inn Keapers in Bradford would often provide the soldiers with free beer and, returning by barge along the canal they were greeted by sympathetic nurses with stretchers to carry the legless back to their wards.

1922 – The Old Court Hotel
Its conversion in 1922, when it became the ‘Old Court Hotel’, saw the chapel converted into a ballroom and restaurant and later, during the second World War, valuable artifacts from the British Museum were stored for safety in its basement The Old Court Hotel closed in 1948 and the building remained empty until 1952.

1971
It was then brought by the Dell family who started converting it into 14 flats. Following 2 more brief changes of ownership, the property was acquired by Anthony & Prudence Dunston in 1971. They moved in in 1972 with their 7 children and spent the next 18 years, using mainly re-claimed materials, to improve the interior of the building.

1987
In 1987 they decided to return the flats into individual homes based on the original weavers cottages. They commissioned Bath architects Tim Organ & Hans Klaeutschi to carry out the project which involved gutting the interior without altering the character of its grade 2 listed facade. Builders PRC took nearly 2 years to complete the development, depositing huge quantities of soil on the 2 acre plot ( originally the work house gardens and site of the school for the children of its inmates).

1993 – Underground House
It was on this piece of land that Anthony Dunston had the idea of using the redundant stone reservoir (which used to supply the workhouse with water) as a possible site for an underground house. He asked Hans Klaentschi, responsible for the Ancliff Square conversion to draw up plans for the project. An application to build it was submitted to the West Wiltshire district Council in November 1993. though it received widespread local support, final planning approval was not given (following a public enquiry) until February 1995.

1995
Construction of the underground house by local builders: Shelland & Winter, began in April 1995 and was completed in august 1997. The Dunston family moved in the beginning of September and began the process of landscaping the huge mound of soil left over from the excavation for the underground dwelling, now named Ancliff Down. Many of the materials used in the re-making of the landscape were stones and pavings from the former workhouse school and from the old reservoir – specifically the stone steps up the banks ( slabs from the floor of the reservoir). Flagstones which had originally paved workhouse floors and the staudary stones, dug up when the site was excavated.

4 comments

Great to see the history and that the old place looks so great. I’m from New Zealand and worked for a short time for the builders doing the renovations in 1987. I mainly worked on laying the new drainage pipes that run along the front of the building and into each apartment. Couldn’t be a nicer environment to work in. A few lunchtime trips to the pub were also enjoyed. Visited about 4 years ago and found it a much busier place.

I lived here as a student from September 1981 to March 1982. Carole and I had a nice little flat, but we got snowed in that winter. Only one loo worked in the whole building and we even had ice in our kettle. Carole had a small car and we managed to drive over the aquaduct to get supplies. The landrovers couldn’t get out. We spent a lot of time in the pub – very lively. Our neighbours were 3 engineering students (2 lads and one girl). Nice memories. I think it was called Old Court then. The owner was very nice. Mr Dunton?

Very interesting article. My name is Martin Heyes and I am the eldest son of Margaret Heyes who was the eldest daughter of William Dell’s 10 children.
My mother died nearly 3 years ago.
I grew up in the north of England but I did spend a few years of my childhood at the Old Court in Avoncliff.
I even went to primary school (for a while) in Westwood!
An awful lot of nonsense is talked about the Old Court but, trust me, it was great growing up there as a kid!

The article mentions the Dell family who owned the Old Court from the early 1950’s to the 1960’s. My grandfather, William Dell, indeed bought (not “brought”) the Old Court as a rather delapidated property and eventually housed 8 of his 10 children there – some married with children of their own and some (at that time) still single.
I am the elder son of William’s oldest daughter, Margaret, and apart from a very short time in the late 1950’s we never actually lived at the Old Court.
However my mother would take my brother and I there every summer for a few weeks and that was an idyllic time for my brother and I. We enjoyed the company of a large number of cousins and even 2 of my uncles – my mother’s youngest brothers – who were not much older than me!
Eventually, however, all good things must end and my grandfather sold the Old Court in the 1960’s. He and my grandmother moved to Trowbridge with his 2 youngest sons and the remainder of the family dispersed.